Tilda Swinton Sleeps in Glass Box at the MoMa (Photos)

Tilda Swinton sleeps in a glass box for an entire day for a piece of performance art at the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday (March 23) in New York City.

The 52-year-old actress slept inside the box from opening till closing that day and will be reviving the piece randomly throughout the rest of the year.

“Museum staff doesn’t know she’s coming until the day of, but she’s here today. She’ll be there the whole day. All that’s in the box is cushions and a water jug,” a source told the Gothamist.

“Tilda Swinton will be doing unannounced, random performance art pieces sleeping in a glass box in the museum,” the source added. “Today is the first performance. Each performance lasts the whole day the museum is open.”

I like Tilda as an actress and for her uniqueness, but recently I saw an actors roundtable where she sarcastically agreed with George Clooney and Christopher Plummer when they were calling Terrence Malick clueless and pretentious about his work.

She might be kidding! Isn’t this clueless and pretentious “art?”

elle

but why?

adrienne

Why is this art?

Amanda

I definitely don’t have an eye for art.

elle

does that mean im a piece of art since i sleep daily?

amanda

ok if you want to call it art then call it art, but a performance? I’m pretty sure you have to perform for it to be a performance…..if sleeping was performing we’d all be world famous

myself

she seems pretty weird to a lot of people, but i find her very interesting and i think she’s a great actress. :)

blee

She just got kicked out of her apartment, that’s all.

Shane

Love her.

lara

It’s the usual insult, telling us “this is art for you, morons”. And morons go see whatever they are served, pay money to be insulted.

Kempis

Ok….

Jenny

Ugh. That would be hell for me. Laying in a box ALL DAY. The box isn’t even long enough for her to stretch out her legs! I would have a panic attack in 2 hours or less.

Jen

I don’t deal well with being the center of attention so my exhibit has been moved for the time being to my room. Would love to tell you more about it,, but it is about to start… Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You

Such a unique actress/artist

Emily

Not buying it as art.

I do get the premise behind it a bit. I guess when we are asleep is our most vulnerable and exposed time. We do naturally feel the need to subconsciously guard ourselves before going to sleep by always being under a cover even if not cold and going to sleep only with those who we are extremely comfortable with. Even in society, many are comfortable sleeping with someone they barely know, but balk at actually falling asleep with them because that is almost more intimate.

All that said, I don’t buy for a moment that this is “Art”. A fantastic human behavior study? Possibly. Art? Bull.

Emily doesn’t the whole get defeated then if you are doing it consciously? She’s not unguarded or vulnerable because she is aware of where she is and what she’s doing.
.

An unguarded, vulnerable moment would be falling asleep in the car in some shopping mall parking lot while waiting for your sister to change the pair of shoes she bought the day before. …never mind that you had warned her the color looked like puke. …errr. ….yeah….I mean this isn’t vulnerable and unguarded.

Here

In no way shape of form am I dissing art, but how is this art? I’m confused. Can an art major or artist break this down? Seriously. I know nothing about art. Love Tilda though.

try something new

been done

Macy

Read Wilson’s amusing novel, “The Family Fang,” to get an idea what “performance art” is all about.

Leila

Maybe she takes a bathroom break now and then and stretches her legs. It’s weird but certainly different. She’s completely awesome.

jsun

It’s just a revival of what Leigh Bowery used to do….primping and laying around behind a 2 way mirror so only we could see in and all he saw was himself…also similar to “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present” where you could sit across from her as she stared…people have different perspectives of what art may or may not be…I see this as more interactive art as opposed to just seeing paintings and sculptures…it’s intriguing.

ari

@Anne: it is pretentious art, an intelligent woman like her would be completely aware of that.

Emily

@African Girl: That is a common debate in cultural studies about any museum. At what point is the piece no longer representative of the subject because it has been taken out of it’s natural environment and put on display? For many, that debate adds to the discussion of the piece.

eleanorbvvv

can I get pay for sleeping too? I do it a lot and verryyy good!

Truman

What are we getting at?? She’s exposed there like an animal! And everyone seems so interested… It’s sad!

Random

Go read about contemporary art instead of making dumb comments. So embarrassing.

Susan

Oh look, a smart person, get inside a box so we can look at you too.

Laurena J. Craig

my classmate’s ex-wife makes $83/hour on the internet. She has been out of work for 6 months but last month her pay was $21044 just working on the internet for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more… http://www.miniurl.com/sa/work-at-home

LeviKlein

So… La Swinton can get away with it but not Michael Jackson? Please…

Elodie

Well…alreet then!

oy

Sleeping as performance art? Is it 1968 again?

Daphne

Yeah, calling “pretentious” something you don’t understand is the easy way out.

I saw that Roundtable. First off, they were not doubting Mallick’s greatness as an artist. Christopher Plummer was talking about how TM cut off almost all his scenes in A New World and how pissed off he was, because TM doesn’t have a good writer and just edits and reedits. The talk then went on to poor Adrian Brody, who apprently had all his scenes as a leading man hacked from A Thin Red Line and who found out about it in the premiere of the film, when the press asked him “so we didn’t see you in the film, why are you here?”. Which no doubt would have been shocking for anybody. A phone call would have been nice.

Tilda Swinton is awesome. No questions asked.

ss

Apart from generating exactly the kind of response this feat was meant to, some people here are also asking existential questions. I think their aim was met, don’t you?

meister

@adrienne: You’re here on a celebrity news blog gagging for a photo of a celeb taking a poo or brushing their teeth of baking an egg. This piece is about people watching a celebrity sleeping? You see what it’s trying to say? You see what I’m getting at, don’t you?

Fruitfly

@lara: Yes. The emperor isn’t wearing any clothes and he hasn’t for awhile when it comes to music, art and literature. Music is debased to the lowest common denomenator; art, in its angst over novelty, is declaring everything “art”, and literature is split between raw crudities like Twatlight and the pretty, flowery language of writers like McCarthy (I’m sorry but his characters and plotline bore me. He’s a very talented poet passing as a fiction writer.)